User blog:TomNamikaze/Double Review - Rivalry
So, as I didn't post a review last week, today I'm posting two of them at once. Let's start with Episode 5 - Rivalry. I guess the only noteworthy thing about this episode is that William is now officially part of the Lyoko Warriors. The episode itself was pretty generic, two people arguing with each other, but ultimately working together to achieve a greater goal. As for the romantic part of the episode, all I say is that it didn't really get in the way. I'm sure we could've gotten a pretty similar episode without the romance. But still, establishing once more that William and Ulrich are racing for Yumi (though it is pretty clear who will win the race). The acting was solid. Nothing special, though Ulrich's actor did go well above his average. William's actor was nice too, though there were little moments that seemed... odd. Yumi's actress was solid, nothing to note. And Odd's was good as always. Jeremie and Aelita did okay, they didn't really have anything to do so no problem. Overall, pretty much everything about this episode was okay. Nothing special, but it wasn't bad either. And we got a little of plot advance, with William officially joining the Lyoko Warriors. Now for Episode 6 - Suspicions Another episode with the Cortex. I can safely say this is not the best episode with the Cortex. I felt the whole Japan earthquake thing was to find an excuse so that only 4 people went to the Cortex (the Megapod only has 4 seats). Don't get me wrong, I love Japan, and I felt really sorry when the earthquake happened, but still, I think they could come up with a different excuse. Maybe because of that, I was really only interested on what was happening in the Cortex. Frankly, I can't care less about that guy that volunteered to help Yumi. He was annoying, and seemed to be a stalker. Anyway, this episode was simply foreshadowing at what we already know (and if you don't know, you should, given the information released about CLE), someone, a real person, somehow created a computer just like the Lyoko Supercomputer. Said person (I'm avoiding his name to avoid spoilers, but again, you should know his name) used that computer to create the Cortex and revive XANA. Obviously, this person had contacts with Franz Hopper during his life on Earth, which would explain why he could revive XANA (maybe Hopper left a copy of the program or something). The end of the episode, I have to say it was a bit anti-climatic. XANA randomly activated a tower with NO DEFENSE whatsoever, and Aelita deactivated it right away. And the Specters created didn't do anything. They didn't try to steal the codes away from the Lyoko Warriors, they just stood there. And besides, they even helped with the charity thing Yumi was doing for Japan, by repairing the sound system. This episode was also an Aelita episode. After knowing the supercomputer which originated the Cortex was just like the one that generated Lyoko, she grew uneasy with the possibility that Franz Hopper was alive and had revived XANA. But after a stroll on the Desert Sector, she regained her confidence in her father. Jeremie said he will look more into the data they extracted from the Cortex to see if he can find anything else. As for the acting, I'm surprised to say the live-action felt more believable than the CGI. What do I mean? The way the characters were talking in Lyoko didn't match up to their expressions. Like when Aelita was distressed about her father, her "character model" didn't convey her emotions (This is probably a problem of the animation team, but it is sort of "acting"). Jeremie and Aelita were pretty good, and props to Yumi's actress as well. Odd was consistent with himself, and everyone else was solid. Wow, long post... Anyway, see you next week. Category:Blog posts